Laundry Q: Sheets are Yellowed. Any Cure?

Cafe Society
1

I have these sheets, eggshell blue in color, which have gotten yellowed, to the point where the yellow is canceling out the blue entirely in some areas. I looked at laundry bluing, but it only has instructions for a top-loader, and my machine is a front-loader in which it is not possible to fill the machine with water before adding clothes, nor is it possible to add anything to the wash except at specific points in the cycle when water flushes through the “add stuff here” drawer.

I would really like them to be blue again, but I don’t want to ruin them. They are 600-count sheets that were a wedding gift, and only a year old. I have tried washing the sheets with dark wash blue jeans on the theory that laundry bluing is blue dye, and jeans are dyed with indigo, to no effect. Ideas?

2

Dylon cold fabric dye doesn’t require a washing machine, only a large pot. Still, your sheets are going to be darker.

3

Don’t laundromats have top loading washers?

4

Laundromats also typically object to using dyes and such in their machines.

5

Have you tried bluing?

6

Do you have rusty water? I use Iron Out in my laundry to get the yellow rusty dingy-ass haze off my stuff. It’s hard on color, though. Use it sparingly.

7

You mean like she mentioned in the OP?

8

She mentioned she looked at it but couldn’t use it in her machine.

This sounds like exactly what bluing is made for. I would suggest finding a top-loading machine (friend, neighbor, family, laundromat) and using it.

9

I thought bluing was for whites only. However, I’m a serious laundry scoff-law, so I could be wrong on that.

10

Well… maybe I’m just dense, but if she mentioned she looked at it but couldn’t use it in her machine… then it seems pretty obvious that she hasn’t tried it.

11

Or more likely I was dense and misinterpreted your meaning.

12

If the yellowing is the result of body-oil stains, a cup or so of ammonia in with the wash might be helpful. (It will saponify the oils and loosen it right up.)

(Please don’t be offended if the yellowing is from something else.)

…and then I reread the OP. Try a laundromat, eh? :slight_smile:

13

Do you think soaking in ammonia(+water), like in a bucket, first and then washing as normal would work?

Just trying to avoid an epic quest for a top loader. I know for sure the laundromat closest to me only has front loaders.

14

Are you sure you can’t use bluing? Does your washer have a little place to put fabric softener? I always put bluing in there, figuring that’s got the best chance of being left in the clothes at the end of the cycle.

15

Oh yeah, do that. I don’t use laundromats ant longer, but I really do appreciate the kind folks who decide my clothes need a change. Free tie-die, eh?
:mad:
Peace,
mangeorge

16

I’ve never had a front loader. Why can’t you add the dye at that point, then stop the machine once it fills?
Sheets are pretty large. Maybe a dry cleaners or (chinese) laundry would be the ticket.

17

You can’t stop the machine at any point. Maybe on some front loaders its possible, I don’t know. But not on the one I use, which is the same machine used by the nearest laundromat. (I don’t have a machine in my apt – my building has a laundry room which contains only commercial-type double loader Wascomat front loaders).

FTR if ever I was do do any nontraditonal washing I would run at least one clean cycle in the machine afterwards. I’m not a monster.

18

Ach. I was having unpleasant laundromat flashbacks inspired by notfrommensa’s suggestion.
I drop to my arthritic old knees in abject apology.
So, how about a professional? Sounds like the sheets might be worth it.
C’mon, let’s get this economy turned around.

19

ok, so I got some ammonia, I was going to try it out on some pillow cases for just-in-casies.

But, with my limited knowledge of laundry chemistry, I hit a roadblock. Everyone knows you can’t mix bleach & ammonia because of the extreme deadly poison risk. However, can you mix Ammonia with “Tide with Bleach Alternative?” What the hell is Bleach Alternative anyway? (I have it in my head it’s a fluorescing agent, but I don’t know where I heard that).

20

Whatever that is. (it’s little bugs that eat your stain)
But forget all that. Forget the egg shell blue. This nice lady has a color made just for you. It’s the one on the bottom right.
Oh yeah, Tides customer service:
Toll-free at 1-800-879-8433
Monday through Friday, 9:00AM to 6:00PM EST